Wall Street: Monday mid-session

STOCKS were mixed at mid-session as worries ahead of President Bush's scheduled speech on Iraq overshadowed hopes of an early resolution to the West Coast port lockout. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 19.7 points at 7548.10, while the technology-packed Nasdaq declined 2.84 points at 1137.06.

Bush is to deliver a televised speech to rally Americans behind a possible war on Iraq. War talk has dogged the market for weeks as investors worry that a military strike could imperil the frail US economic recovery.

The Dow received support in early trade from Intel after chief executive Craig Barrett said the computer sector might start to show recovery in 2003. Intel gained 33 cents or 2.4% at $14.40

A more downbeat assessment of the prospects for the semi-conductor sector from Prudential Securities hit other chip makers. AMD was down 7 cents at $3.44, Texas Instruments was off 3 cents at $14.65, Applied Materials dropped 28 cents at $11.04 while Motorola slipped 16 cents at $9.85. Prudential Securities cut the sector to 'market underperform' from 'market outperform', citing a slower than expected recovery in 2003.

Among other technology stocks, Cisco Systems was sharply lower, shedding 31 cents or 3.3% at $9.15 after after Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank reduced earnings estimates.

But retailers were under pressure after stores group Sears warned on profits. It slumped $3.63 or nearly 10% to $33.01, while Wal-Mart was down 28 cents at $51.47, JC Penney was off 69 cents at $14.65 and Home Depot slid 68 cents at $25.12.

JP Morgan outperformed the wider banking sector, up 52 cents at $17.06, on reports that it plans to shed up to 4,000 jobs in a fresh attempt to shore up profits in the face of slumping revenues. But reports that Merrill Lynch was planning to shed 1,000 jobs failed to help the stock, down 58 cents at $29.59.